This mutilated toucan now has a new 3-D-printed beak

BBC News
Tieta was rescued from an animal fair in Rio de Janeiro.

Tieta, a female toucan from Brazil, lost the upper part of its beak while being trafficked. Now, scientists have created a prosthesis for Teita made with a 3-D printer.

Tieta was rescued from a wildlife animal fair in Rio de Janeiro and it is not clear whether she lost the upper part of her beak after being mistreated by animal smugglers or in a fight with a bigger toucan she was locked up with inside a small box.

The project was coordinated by wildlife management group Instituto Vida Livre and involved three Brazilian universities.

Plastic replacement

The prosthetic is made of plastic, covered with nail polish and sealed with a special polymer made from the castor oil plant.

Researchers used the latest technology to design and produce the prosthesis.

Researchers used the latest technology to design and produce the prosthesis.

Credit:

Gustavo Cleinman

The beak is made of plastic and only weighs 4g.

The beak is made of plastic and only weighs 4g.

Credit:

Gustavo Cleinman

Taciana Sherlock from the Brazilian wildlife control agency Ibama said the toucan was rescued in March, malnourished and missing its beak.

Black-beaked toucans like Tieta, which are native to Rio and not endangered, can cost up to $5,000 when sold legally, according to Sherlock.

She says that before the surgery Tieta was using the lower part of the beak to throw food into the air and trying to grab it. She succeeded only once in every three attempts.

Hungry for maggots

Tieta was fitted with the prosthesis on July 27. "It took her three days to realize she had it again," says Instituto Vida Livre's director, Roched Seba. "We were feeding her fruit and she was ignoring the new beak. But when we gave her live animals, like maggots and cockroaches, she ate normally immediately," he explains.

"I believe she had that kind of food when she was free, before losing the beak. So it activated a core memory," he adds.

It took researchers three months to design the beak but it took only two hours for the printer to print it.

The prosthesis is about an 1.5in long and replaces the upper part of the beak.

The prosthesis is about an 1.5in long and replaces the upper part of the beak.

Credit:

Gustavo Cleinman

The beak weighs approximately .14 ounces and it is about 1.5 inches long. Tieta herself only weighs about 10.5 ounces.

Designer Gustavo Cleinman from Rio de Janeiro's Federal University says the biggest challenge was to create a light and resilient prosthesis.

He used the beak of a dead animal as a model and adapted it to resemble Tieta's original beak more closely.

Hope for mating

The team was breaking new ground with this project. Although another group of researchers was creating a prosthetic beak for another injured toucan in Sao Paulo, the two teams were unaware of each other's work.

In Costa Rica, a charity has raised $10,000 for a prosthesis for a toucan which also lost the upper part of its beak, but the surgery has yet to be performed.

Tieta's surgery only took 40 minutes to perform but was not without risks, veterinarian Thiago Muniz says.

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